Adobe announced yesterday that it had acquired New York-based company Behance. With 1 million members, the startup developed a LinkedIn for artists, allowing users to showcase their visual work. We just learned the financial terms from multiple sources. GigaOM first reported that it was north of $100 million. According to our sources, Adobe paid slightly more than $150 million in cash and stock, with certain growth goals to attain over multiple years.
The financial details confirm that Adobe is committed to Behance’s product and developing it further. The artist community will be integrated in the newly launched Creative Cloud service. Yet, Adobe senior marketing director Scott Morris told Frederic Lardinois yesterday that the company has no plan to retire the Behance brand or make any change to the product.
Behance allows artists to build and showcase a web portfolio without having to manage a website. It makes it easier to manage and share images and information about artworks and photos. The service also powers thousands of other websites’ portfolios, such as the portfolio features of AdWeek, the Rhode Island School of Design and The Smithsonian National Design Awards.
The 32 employees will now work for Adobe but stay in New York, while Behance founder and CEO Scott Belsky will become Adobe’s vice president of community. Behance will play an important role in Adobe’s social strategy, while remaining concentrated on visual professionals. The original team will stay focused on Behance and keep working independently.
Behance was founded in 2006 and only raised a $6.5 million Series A round back in May from Union Square Ventures, 500 Startups, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (Bezos Expeditions), Dave Morin, Yves Behar, Chris Dixon, Dave Tisch, Alexis Ohanian and Garrett Camp. At a $150 million acquisition price, Behance is a good deal for investors. Moreover, Adobe is certainly a good fit for the enterprise-focused startup based in New York.
Romain Dillet was a Senior Reporter at TechCrunch until April 2025. He has written over 3,500 articles on technology and tech startups and has established himself as an influential voice on the European tech scene. He has a deep background in startups, AI, fintech, privacy, security, blockchain, mobile, social and media. With thirteen years of experience at TechCrunch, he’s one of the familiar faces of the tech publication that obsessively covers Silicon Valley and the tech industry — his career started at TechCrunch when he was 21. Based in Paris, many people in the tech ecosystem consider him as the most knowledgeable tech journalist in town. Romain likes to spot important startups before anyone else. He was the first person to cover Revolut, Alan and N26. He has written scoops on large acquisitions from Apple, Microsoft and Snap. When he’s not writing, Romain is also a developer — he understands how the tech behind the tech works. He also has a deep historical knowledge of the computer industry for the past 50 years. He knows how to connect the dots between innovations and the effect on the fabric of our society. Romain graduated from Emlyon Business School, a leading French business school specialized in entrepreneurship. He has helped several non-profit organizations, such as StartHer, an organization that promotes education and empowerment of women in technology, and Techfugees, an organization that empowers displaced people with technology.